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The war started on July 28, 1914 after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered various nations to take arms against each other to protect their allies.

Britain had declared war on Germany in August 1914 over its attack on France through Belgium.

The bells rang out at Lincoln Cathedral after the Armistice was signed, shops, schools and businesses closed and there were scenes of jubilation in streets across the county.

Soldiers partied with civilians in the streets of Paris, in Belgium, and in London, where the Royal Family made an appearance on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.

A British Grenadier Guardsman keeps watch on 'No-Man's land' as his comrades sleep in a captured German trench at Ovillers, near Albert, during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (Image: PA)

In New York there was a ticker tape parade in honour of the Americans who had helped secure victory for Britain, France and Belgium.

For some soldiers still on the Western Front, it must have seemed eerily quiet after the noise and carnage of battle.

The fighting had continued until the Armistice came into effect on November 11, 1918 and there were 10,944 casualties, including 2,738 dead, on the final day of the war.

The Lincolnshire Echo's report of November 12, 1918, tells of "great jubilation" on Armistice Day:

"Throughout the county there was great jubilation when the news of the Armistice was made public.

"By general consent, work was suspended, shops closed, and schools shut.

"Grantham was almost wild with joy. The Mayor (Mr A. Priestly) made the first announcement at the Police Court, and the magistrates showed their appreciation of the good news by discharging two Scots' boys who appeared on remand for defrauding the Great Northern Railway, and paid their fares home to Dumbartonshire.

"In Spilsby, wounded soldiers from the hospital took the proceedings in hand, secured a bugle and sounded the Fall In.

"The National Anthem was sung and three cheers were given for the Army, the Navy and Air Force.

"The schoolchildren, who had only reassembled that morning after the flu epidemic, had a half-term holiday.

"The news reached Skegness just after 10 on Monday morning but a large number of people were dubious as to the authenticity of it.

"The Regiment gave vent to their feelings in no uncertain manner and when a telegram came through cancelling the draft of of a large number of them to France, cheers and the firing of machine guns filled the air.

"Upon the official news of the signing, the cathedral bell ringers were hastily summoned and the bells set going.

"An interesting fact in the ringing was that Mr Lilburn of the Bail took part.

"He rang at St Peter at Arches at the end of the Crimean War. Mr Lilburn will enter his 80th year in 1919."

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The Armistice was signed in a train carriage parked in a siding in the Forest of Compiegne.

The Allied Supreme Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch wrote most of the terms which included an end to the fighting, withdrawal of German troops, no end to the naval blockade of Germany, allied occupation of the Rhineland and the surrender of German guns, aircraft and ships.

The German Imperial Battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz seen here during Operation ZZ, the surrender of the the German High Seas Fleet to the Royal Navy following the signing of the Armistice (Image: Mirrorpix)

Britain's representative at the negotiations was First Sea Lord Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, who managed to get the Germans to surrender all of her submarines.

How the Echo described the signing of armistice

The Echo's editorial comment of November 12, 1918, described the signing of the armistice as"the wisest act Germany has sanctioned during the whole period of the war".

It stated: "The terms are necessarily severe - one cannot be too complacent in the treatment of a cornered tiger."

Signing the 1918 Armistice (Image: Mirrorpix)

Germany was also made to pay compensation to France and Belgium after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919.

Germany was ordered to make reparations of £22 billion at the time. The agreement at Versailles pretty much crippled Germany after the war as it descended into grinding poverty, starvation and political unrest.

Some historians argue the tough terms of the treaty created the conditions for the rise of Adolf Hitler and outbreak of the Second World War.

Hitler, a corporal in the First World War, felt that Germany had been humiliated by Versailles and was hell-bent on revenge.

And he got it. When France surrendered to Germany in June 1940, Hitler insisted the armistice was signed in the very same train carriage and location as the 1918 peace deal had been signed.

Echo 125 call for memories

2018 is the 125th anniversary year of the Lincolnshire Echo. What are your memories of the Echo?

Do you have any old copies lurking in the attic? Do you have any suggestions of significant events in the county's past that we should re-visit.

Call Paul Whitelam on 01522 804339 or paul.whitelam@lincolnshireecho.co.uk or comment on our Facebook.